Chicken Marinara
Worried Tomato! You know what that means. I forgot to take a picture. But, that's okay, since it also means I made something!
Last night was a "personal meal" which is something I'll be trying for a while; in short, making an experimental recipe for myself while I use a safe recipe for Megan. That way if something goes wrong, I only have to go out to get food for one person, rather than two. Efficient!
So while Megan ate Chicken di Ketchup and ample amounts of the Roasted Cauliflower we made, I tried Chicken Marinara.
Chicken Marinara
Recipe can be found here
If I had learned nothing from my previous cooking endeavors, its that when you're cooking for two (or one, in this case) the quantities involved in the recipe simply do not apply. As you can see in the recipe itself, it is meant to serve six. A more mathematical soul might try to simply reduce the ingredient quantities down to 1/6th of their original design, but that sounds complicated. After all, how exactly am I supposed to use 1/3rd of an egg?
Ingredients I used:
-1/2 a container of Buitoni garlic marinara sauce (I had this leftover from the previous night's dinner)
-Bread crumbs
-Kraft Parmesan Cheese
-1 egg, beaten
-Flour
-Olive Oil
At the moment I'm housesitting for Megan's parents, so I had a different kitchen (which was nice) but also slightly limited resources (they took a lot of their utensils with them on their trip.)
The first steps are pretty standard for pan-seared chicken. Apply flour to the chicken, then coat it in the egg, then coat again in a mixture of Parmesan and bread crumbs. I didn't measure any of that, just used enough to cover the chicken breast.
Then, put olive oil in a pan and preheat it. I didn't actually have a pan, so I used a pot. Drop the chicken into the pan and sear on each side for about 4 minutes.
Now, while I may have remembered not to use the quantities of ingredients, I did forget that when pan cooking chicken you need to pound it out to make it thinner. While my chicken had a perfect outer-coating, the inside was still under-cooked. This ended up not being a problem, though! Since Megan's Chicken di Ketchup is cooked in the oven, I just put my chicken into the oven at 450 for ten minutes. Perfect!
Drop the pre-made marinara sauce onto it (after microwaving it out of refrigeration), add some extra Parmesan cheese, and you're in business! Total success!
Chicken Experiment #1: Paprika Fail
Ta-da! Matt made me this banner a while ago and I haven't had an occasion to use it yet. This seemed to be as good a time as any!
Well, as previously stated, this is going to be a record of possible chicken seasonings for our usual method (bake at 450 for 20 minutes coated lightly with olive oil.) This first foray didn't go very well...
Seasoning Ingredients
-1/2 Tsp of Paprika
-1/2 Tsp of Salt
-1/2 Tsp of Ground Pepper
-1/2 Tsp of Onion Powder
Results: HORRIBLE ):
I don't know why I thought this would be good. Firstly, a 1/2 Tsp is too much for a single chicken breast. Informal measurements should be used just to lightly coat the meat rather than make a scrapable layer of it.
Second, if you've ever had seasoning salt on fries, this is basically the recipe, except switch out the ground pepper for garlic powder. So, I basically made seasoning salt chicken. And it was pretty awful. Maybe the same flavor in smaller quantities? Somehow I just don't see it working out.
A Chicken Experiment
One of the difficulties Megan and I have when it comes to the subject of cooking has very little to do with time or technique; it has to do with health. While making fun, amazing dishes is...well, fun and amazing, it isn't always the healthiest choice one could make.
And I have a hard time saying that she's wrong.
After all, one only has to watch an episode of "Paula's Party" on the Food Network to realize that the key to good eating is often five or six cups of butter. While these dishes might be fun and delicious, they're definitely not something one should be eating on a daily basis.
So most of the time, Megan and I just eat chicken and vegetables. It's boring, but it's healthy and it's relatively easy.
When I make the chicken, though, I usually do something to mine. Open the spice rack and throw something on there at random. Sometimes the results are really good, sometimes they're just adequate. But I got to thinking the other day that perhaps there could be a more thorough way to deal with my chicken diet. What if I started measuring the things I added to the chicken? What if I started recording it? What if I set out to find specific flavors?
So that's what I'm going to do.
My hope is that the results will develop a "suite of spices" that one can reference and utilize to create any taste of food possible while using the same, tried and true cooking method. I have no idea how many different flavors I'll be able to find. Heck, there might only be five. But it will hopefully engage my cooking brain while saving our arteries from the five cups of butter.
So if any of you have any chicken rubs (can you put a rub on a chicken? Have to look that up), marinades, or seasoning combinations, post in the comments or send me an email! Heck, if you have ones that don't even go on chicken, let me know anyway and I'll give it a shot.
Here's to chicken.
And I have a hard time saying that she's wrong.
After all, one only has to watch an episode of "Paula's Party" on the Food Network to realize that the key to good eating is often five or six cups of butter. While these dishes might be fun and delicious, they're definitely not something one should be eating on a daily basis.
So most of the time, Megan and I just eat chicken and vegetables. It's boring, but it's healthy and it's relatively easy.
When I make the chicken, though, I usually do something to mine. Open the spice rack and throw something on there at random. Sometimes the results are really good, sometimes they're just adequate. But I got to thinking the other day that perhaps there could be a more thorough way to deal with my chicken diet. What if I started measuring the things I added to the chicken? What if I started recording it? What if I set out to find specific flavors?
So that's what I'm going to do.
My hope is that the results will develop a "suite of spices" that one can reference and utilize to create any taste of food possible while using the same, tried and true cooking method. I have no idea how many different flavors I'll be able to find. Heck, there might only be five. But it will hopefully engage my cooking brain while saving our arteries from the five cups of butter.
So if any of you have any chicken rubs (can you put a rub on a chicken? Have to look that up), marinades, or seasoning combinations, post in the comments or send me an email! Heck, if you have ones that don't even go on chicken, let me know anyway and I'll give it a shot.
Here's to chicken.
Island Style Barbecue Chicken, "Bitter" Herb Potatoes, Greek Salad?
This is actually from last Monday, I got a little behind on posting it. This was the first foray into trying out Uncle Larry's Collection of Old Recipes [ULCOR? Maybe.] and was one of the more simple offerings. We...didn't like it as well as we might have hoped, but it was still a fun thing to do.
Chicken and Potatoes
Greek Salad: Megan made it!
Island Style Barbecue Chicken
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinned chicken breast
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 small piece of ginger root, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pretty simple, this one. Preheat your oven to 350. Grease down a 9 x 13 pan, set down the chicken skin-down. Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl to create a barbecue sauce, brush onto chicken. Cook for about 15 minutes, flip and brush the other side, then finish it up for about another 15 minutes. You may have to watch the time, it might take less...and since it was a week ago I'm forgetting how I did it exactly. I think I ended up doing the same amount of time with more odd flips in between.
"Bitter" Herb Potatoes
Ingredients:
Red Potatoes
Olive Oil
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
Basil
Thyme
Salt
I pre-heated a pan with olive oil. Cut red potatoes into slices, the thinner the better (my knife skills are sloppy with ill-practice, so mine were kinda thick.) Throw into pan, add chopped garlic cloves and sautee. As its going along, add Basil and Thyme to taste; it doesn't take much. The bitterness of the Basil and Thyme work in conjunction with the natural buttery-ness of the red potatoes and the kick of the garlic in a very interesting way. It's honestly not one I would've thought of, but my brother happened to be there at the same time and I told him to pick a spice to add. I was hesitant about the thyme, but it worked.
A trick I've found with sauteeing potatoes that are particularly thick is to kill the heat or lower it and then add the lid to the pan. This forces the steam back into the potatoes and softens them up a lot.
Greek Salad?
This is Megan's salad. She just made it out of Feta cheese, bagged salad greens, Basalmic Vinnegrette dressing and cherry tomatoes. Simple but yummy!
Results
The chicken, as one might imagine from 6 tablespoons of sugar, was really sweet. I think to me it was similar to a honey-based barbecue sauce, though there is a distinct sweetness and tangyness to it. It's good, but it's not how we usually like our barbecue sauce, so it wasn't a bad recipe, just didn't match our personal taste. Also, I don't think you need to keep the skin. It didn't crisp up at all, so I didn't see the point in keeping it on there. I suppose one might throw it on a pan to crisp up. If you try it, let me know.
The potatoes were kind of bitter, but still melty and warm tasting. Nothing like a little improvised potatoing to cap off a dinner. Very good call by my brother on the thyme.
And of course, Megan's salad was good.
=====
I think our grill needs some attention this week. I'm gunning for Wednesday.
In case you're wondering tomorrow we'll be eating the Italian soup I posted about a while ago. Just click on "soup" on the tags to check it out.
Chicken and Potatoes
Greek Salad: Megan made it!
Island Style Barbecue Chicken
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinned chicken breast
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 small piece of ginger root, crushed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pretty simple, this one. Preheat your oven to 350. Grease down a 9 x 13 pan, set down the chicken skin-down. Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl to create a barbecue sauce, brush onto chicken. Cook for about 15 minutes, flip and brush the other side, then finish it up for about another 15 minutes. You may have to watch the time, it might take less...and since it was a week ago I'm forgetting how I did it exactly. I think I ended up doing the same amount of time with more odd flips in between.
"Bitter" Herb Potatoes
Ingredients:
Red Potatoes
Olive Oil
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
Basil
Thyme
Salt
I pre-heated a pan with olive oil. Cut red potatoes into slices, the thinner the better (my knife skills are sloppy with ill-practice, so mine were kinda thick.) Throw into pan, add chopped garlic cloves and sautee. As its going along, add Basil and Thyme to taste; it doesn't take much. The bitterness of the Basil and Thyme work in conjunction with the natural buttery-ness of the red potatoes and the kick of the garlic in a very interesting way. It's honestly not one I would've thought of, but my brother happened to be there at the same time and I told him to pick a spice to add. I was hesitant about the thyme, but it worked.
A trick I've found with sauteeing potatoes that are particularly thick is to kill the heat or lower it and then add the lid to the pan. This forces the steam back into the potatoes and softens them up a lot.
Greek Salad?
This is Megan's salad. She just made it out of Feta cheese, bagged salad greens, Basalmic Vinnegrette dressing and cherry tomatoes. Simple but yummy!
Results
The chicken, as one might imagine from 6 tablespoons of sugar, was really sweet. I think to me it was similar to a honey-based barbecue sauce, though there is a distinct sweetness and tangyness to it. It's good, but it's not how we usually like our barbecue sauce, so it wasn't a bad recipe, just didn't match our personal taste. Also, I don't think you need to keep the skin. It didn't crisp up at all, so I didn't see the point in keeping it on there. I suppose one might throw it on a pan to crisp up. If you try it, let me know.
The potatoes were kind of bitter, but still melty and warm tasting. Nothing like a little improvised potatoing to cap off a dinner. Very good call by my brother on the thyme.
And of course, Megan's salad was good.
=====
I think our grill needs some attention this week. I'm gunning for Wednesday.
In case you're wondering tomorrow we'll be eating the Italian soup I posted about a while ago. Just click on "soup" on the tags to check it out.
Monkey Bread
Aha! I have returned!
Last week I didn't cook anything of note. Monday we did the tacos which have been so successful in the past, and Wednesday we were invited to the New Price's (This is AJ and Rachelle; as opposed to the old Prices which would be Matt and Jeni...also, we didn't go to Scotland.) to have a meal with all Prices. They made a really cool Lasagne with goat cheese and bison meat which resulted in a tangy and satisfying Italian variant.
I brought completely unhealthy dessert items.
Monkey Bread
Ingredients:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Butter
3 Tsp Cinnamon
2 cans Grands Biscuits (extra rich, non-flaky)
Ah, looks healthy already doesn't it? This recipe is pretty automatic. Preheat oven to 350. Take 1/2 cup of both sugars and the cinnamon and put them into a ziplock bag, gallon-sized. Open your biscuit cans and quarter them. Put the biscuits into bag and coat with the sugar mix. You might to shake or push or whatever it is you enjoy doing whilst...coating.
Now, the caramelizd glaze. Take the rest of the sugar and your butter, put into a saucepan and caramelize.
Taking a bundt pan, put in half of the biscuits. Then pour in half of the glaze. Then put the rest of the biscuits in and then pour the remainder of the glaze. Bake for 20-40 minutes, making or until knife blade comes out clean from testing.
I...actually burned mine a tiny bit. I didn't hear the timer go off. But it was still 95 percent edible! So, it's a pretty fool-proof recipe. This is a Rockney family staple and works wonderfully at parties or for a rather rich breakfast treat.
=====
Before I went on hiatus I actually did one rather complicated project. I made eclairs completely from scratch for my dad for Father's Day. But...that story is one of tragic endings. One day I'll get up the courage to type it out. It's only now starting to be funny.
My grandpa apparently found a collection recipes that my Great Uncle Larry had made from a variety of newspapers. He scanned it and gave a copy to my dad, who in turn gave me a copy on a DVD. I just started looking at them to day and there is a GIGANTIC amount of recipes in it. All from Hawaiin newspapers. So, I'm going to start off next week by trying out Island Style Barbecued Chicken. Looks easy and should be tasty. We'll see what the past has to offer!
Last week I didn't cook anything of note. Monday we did the tacos which have been so successful in the past, and Wednesday we were invited to the New Price's (This is AJ and Rachelle; as opposed to the old Prices which would be Matt and Jeni...also, we didn't go to Scotland.) to have a meal with all Prices. They made a really cool Lasagne with goat cheese and bison meat which resulted in a tangy and satisfying Italian variant.
I brought completely unhealthy dessert items.
Monkey Bread
Ingredients:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Butter
3 Tsp Cinnamon
2 cans Grands Biscuits (extra rich, non-flaky)
Ah, looks healthy already doesn't it? This recipe is pretty automatic. Preheat oven to 350. Take 1/2 cup of both sugars and the cinnamon and put them into a ziplock bag, gallon-sized. Open your biscuit cans and quarter them. Put the biscuits into bag and coat with the sugar mix. You might to shake or push or whatever it is you enjoy doing whilst...coating.
Now, the caramelizd glaze. Take the rest of the sugar and your butter, put into a saucepan and caramelize.
Taking a bundt pan, put in half of the biscuits. Then pour in half of the glaze. Then put the rest of the biscuits in and then pour the remainder of the glaze. Bake for 20-40 minutes, making or until knife blade comes out clean from testing.
I...actually burned mine a tiny bit. I didn't hear the timer go off. But it was still 95 percent edible! So, it's a pretty fool-proof recipe. This is a Rockney family staple and works wonderfully at parties or for a rather rich breakfast treat.
=====
Before I went on hiatus I actually did one rather complicated project. I made eclairs completely from scratch for my dad for Father's Day. But...that story is one of tragic endings. One day I'll get up the courage to type it out. It's only now starting to be funny.
My grandpa apparently found a collection recipes that my Great Uncle Larry had made from a variety of newspapers. He scanned it and gave a copy to my dad, who in turn gave me a copy on a DVD. I just started looking at them to day and there is a GIGANTIC amount of recipes in it. All from Hawaiin newspapers. So, I'm going to start off next week by trying out Island Style Barbecued Chicken. Looks easy and should be tasty. We'll see what the past has to offer!
End of the Hiatus is Nigh
Hello foodins!
Apologies for the break. But over the past six weeks, Megan has been working at nights, and without a second mouth to feed my motivation to duel the culinary world plummeted. But prepare thine tines and swashbuckle your spoons because starting next week we shall be a cooking again!
Huzzah!
Apologies for the break. But over the past six weeks, Megan has been working at nights, and without a second mouth to feed my motivation to duel the culinary world plummeted. But prepare thine tines and swashbuckle your spoons because starting next week we shall be a cooking again!
Huzzah!
Chicken di Rockney/Emiril? and Sweet Vegetables
One of the benefits I'm discovering with cooking is that every now and again you're faced with a quickdraw situation where you just have to "Eat NOW". With Megan this can be quite frequent as she and her schedule combined with overwhelming hunger can put a guy in a bind. Fortunately, though, I've been doing this long enough now to be able to apply some techniques quickly and still make something delicious in just under 30 minutes.
Chicken di Rockney + Emiril
2 Chicken Breasts (around a pound)
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Emiril's Essence
Emiril's Essence (Found on Food Network site)
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
This was a bit of improvising. Chicken di Rockney is what Megan's parents make quite frequently, and it's pretty good. It's basically just an herb chicken; olive oil, then add Herbes de Provence (the main flavor) and then Basil. Bake and serve. But instead of just throwing that in, I decided to bring out my container of Emiril's Essence and toss that on there.
Good idea.
Emiril's essence is a little spicy and definitely zesty and peppery. It's really good and quite easy to make and store. I first made it back when I did the Chicken Marsala recipe and I've used it about three times on a whim since then adn have had great results every time. I do forget to say "Bam" though.
Anyway, oil, Essence, Herbes de Provence. I use tin foil to increase ease of cleaning. Bake in oven at 375 for about 25-30 minutes (45-50 if breast is frozen). Then you're pretty much done! Super easy peasy.
Sweet Vegetables
Red Bell Pepper
White Onion
Zucchini
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Cinammon
Ah, now this is where I got creative. Megan brought home these vegetables and told me to sautee them with olive oil in a pan (just a bit of olive oil). So as I was doing so, I glanced over my shoulder and waited until she wasn't looking, then opened up the spice cabinet and went to town.
My theory was this: I knew that the chicken would be a little spicy because I'd used the Essence before. So if I was going to season the vegetables in a direction, I should take it sweeter.
Good idea.
Just a tiny bit of salt (two twists from my sea salt grinder), much more ground peper (10-15 twists?), two pinches of cumin and just a dash of cinammon. When sauteed, both bell peppers (especially red, in my opinion) and white onion become sweeter as they are cooked longer. The cinammon is REALLY key in bringing out the sweetness even further while I feel like the cumin sort of neutralized any remaining harshness from the peppers and onions. Cook until you are satisfied with softness.
The sweetness was an amazing off-set to the spicyness of the chicken and was quite enjoyable. Not bad for 30 minutes, huh? Watch out Rachel Ray, I'm coming for you.
===
My hope is that tomorrow I'll be stir-frying. Stay tuned.
The Food Labs will be opening soon. You'll see what it is when my brother finishes the banner, but Pizzadillas would've been part of the Food Labs had it been around.
I've become enamored with this concept of chile peppers and chocolate. Anyone that's ever seen Chocolat knows or if you're a chocolate lover like me knows that the ancient Mayans used to drink this bizarre drink that was a combination of chile water and chocolate. I'm really curious to see what happens when you mix those ingredients together...maybe when I have some time...
Chicken di Rockney + Emiril
2 Chicken Breasts (around a pound)
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Emiril's Essence
Emiril's Essence (Found on Food Network site)
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
This was a bit of improvising. Chicken di Rockney is what Megan's parents make quite frequently, and it's pretty good. It's basically just an herb chicken; olive oil, then add Herbes de Provence (the main flavor) and then Basil. Bake and serve. But instead of just throwing that in, I decided to bring out my container of Emiril's Essence and toss that on there.
Good idea.
Emiril's essence is a little spicy and definitely zesty and peppery. It's really good and quite easy to make and store. I first made it back when I did the Chicken Marsala recipe and I've used it about three times on a whim since then adn have had great results every time. I do forget to say "Bam" though.
Anyway, oil, Essence, Herbes de Provence. I use tin foil to increase ease of cleaning. Bake in oven at 375 for about 25-30 minutes (45-50 if breast is frozen). Then you're pretty much done! Super easy peasy.
Sweet Vegetables
Red Bell Pepper
White Onion
Zucchini
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Cinammon
Ah, now this is where I got creative. Megan brought home these vegetables and told me to sautee them with olive oil in a pan (just a bit of olive oil). So as I was doing so, I glanced over my shoulder and waited until she wasn't looking, then opened up the spice cabinet and went to town.
My theory was this: I knew that the chicken would be a little spicy because I'd used the Essence before. So if I was going to season the vegetables in a direction, I should take it sweeter.
Good idea.
Just a tiny bit of salt (two twists from my sea salt grinder), much more ground peper (10-15 twists?), two pinches of cumin and just a dash of cinammon. When sauteed, both bell peppers (especially red, in my opinion) and white onion become sweeter as they are cooked longer. The cinammon is REALLY key in bringing out the sweetness even further while I feel like the cumin sort of neutralized any remaining harshness from the peppers and onions. Cook until you are satisfied with softness.
The sweetness was an amazing off-set to the spicyness of the chicken and was quite enjoyable. Not bad for 30 minutes, huh? Watch out Rachel Ray, I'm coming for you.
===
My hope is that tomorrow I'll be stir-frying. Stay tuned.
The Food Labs will be opening soon. You'll see what it is when my brother finishes the banner, but Pizzadillas would've been part of the Food Labs had it been around.
I've become enamored with this concept of chile peppers and chocolate. Anyone that's ever seen Chocolat knows or if you're a chocolate lover like me knows that the ancient Mayans used to drink this bizarre drink that was a combination of chile water and chocolate. I'm really curious to see what happens when you mix those ingredients together...maybe when I have some time...
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